Spain’s National Statistics Institute said yesterday the number of purchase-sale transactions in the property market grew 17.3% in November to 33,806 from a year ago (and compared with a rise of 6.5% in October). That makes ten consecutive months of year-on-year rises.
Second-hand homes transactions rose 19.8% to 27,996 in November from a year earlier, while new home transactions advanced 6.8% year-on-year to 5,810. In the 11 months to November, the number of purchase-sale operations increased 14.2% from a year ago, fuelled mainly by an 18.5% rise in second-hand housing market. The number of new home transactions fell by 1.4%.
Following these numbers, on-line property agencies Idealista and Pisos.com forecast that there will have been over 400,000 purchase-sale transactions completed by the end of 2016. Head of Research at Idealista, Fernando Encinar, said the figures released yesterday “come as no surprise,” confirming he predicts a total of more than 400,000 operations by end-year.
For his part, Head of Research at Pisos.com, Manuel Gandarias, is looking at a figure of over 410,000, given that Thursday’s data shows the year-on-year growth rate in purchase-sales transactions is back in double digits, while in month-on-month terms a similar growth has not been seen for the last five years. In his view, the housing market “is once again demonstrating that it plays a key role” in economic stability and is a “fundamental source” of job creation.
